Workshop Heracleum mantegazzianum, 26 March 2025 17:30, Galerie TIC
On Wednesday 26 March 2025 at 17:30 we invite you to the Galerie TIC for an interdisciplinary workshop by Adam Vačkář, PhD student at FFA.Heracleum mantegazzianum: Interdisciplinary methods of imagination for coexistence with non-human entities
Lecturers: Adam Vačkář (FFA) & Jakub Kvizda (Charles University)
26. 3. 2025, 17:30 – 19:00
Kino CIT and bookstore ArtMap, Galerie TIC, Radnická 4, Brno
An interdisciplinary workshop linking art and anthropology as tools for understanding the relationship between humans and long-marginalized "invasive" species, specifically the Heracleum mantegazzianum. Together with Jakub Kvizda, an anthropologist from Charles University who has conducted extensive field research in the Sudetenland, where the Heracleum mantegazzianum resists attempts at total eradication, we will focus on questions of coexistence, ecological control and perceptions of invasive organisms in the context of society, legislation, political ecology and cultural imagination. The visual artist Adam Vačkář has long been dealing with the topic of the Heracleum mantegazzianum in his dissertation, in which he explores this plant not only as a real biological being, but also as a paradigm and tool for reimagining the perspective of humans in the present in relation to nature, otherness and ecological control. His work combines scientific research with artistic methods of imagination, opening up new perspectives on invasive species and their place in the ecosystem and in human thought.
The lecture and workshop will focus on several key topics:
- Historical genesis and changing perception of the Heracleum mantegazzianum - From an ornamental plant in castle gardens to a feared ecological invader. How is man's relationship to this plant changing?
- Forms of the Heracleum mantegazzianum´s escape from human control and eradication - Is it possible to believe in absolute control of the landscape?
- The figure of the 'exterminator' - What archetypes are associated with the eradication of invasive species? Why are eradicators portrayed as warriors against nature and what discourse does this create?
- Legislation of annihilation - What political and legal mechanisms shape the notion of "total eradication" of invasive species?
- The power of imagination - What tools do we have to change the paradigm of marginalising invasive plants?
- Responsible leadership - What are the possible changes in legislation?
During the workshop, participants will look for new ways of thinking about nature that go beyond the common dichotomies of "harmful vs. useful" or "native vs. non-native". Through artistic and sociological methods of imagination, we will explore how ecology can be grasped differently - not only as a scientific discipline, but as a space for dialogue between natural and social systems.
The workshop is intended for artists, social scientists, ecologists and all those interested in new approaches to the relationship between humans and non-human life forms.
Entrance is free. Workshop will be led in Czech.
| Author | Mgr. Tímea Vitázková |
|---|---|
| Published | |
| Short URL | https://www.favu.vut.cz/en//f26745/d284280 |